instinct is untaught ability

    Had the strangest, most enlightening conversation with a friend this afternoon. Lately he's been seeking my advice about his girlfriend...the young lady he's been seeing...whatever. Their "relationship." What constitutes a relationship. Not in so many words, exactly. We just sort of talk around things a lot. Anyway, over the weekend he sent a message to say that he had lots of new data for me (about the situation), and also that he was ready to tell me the big thing. Considering some of the other intel that he's shared, "the big thing" sounded pretty ominous - or hilarious, depending on how you look at it.

    In preparation for today's discussion, I made a list. A sort of hedge against whatever he might be planning to tell me. My 'Top Ten Guesses':

1. she's bi
2. she's got a felony record
3. she's a dominatrix
4. she used to be a dude
5. she's a...stripper
6. she loves karaoke
7. she has a body part pierced that I do not want to know about
8. she's got a kid
9. she [has an unpleasant apparel habit]
10. [male celebrity] has her calendar by his bed

    Before he told me the big news - or even just gave the briefest rundown on the weekend - I showed him the list, partially to break the tension (we were both a little hyper) and also because I thought it would be one big joke. Ha ha, those are all outlandish statements that couldn't possibly be true, right?

    Um...no. 'Cause, see, I guessed right. One of those items was his big news. He about flipped, and couldn't really believe that I could guess it. Of course I had no clue which one it was (though I guessed it wasn't #9, as abhorrent as that would be). In the end, we surmised that I figured it out based on some subtle clues that he didn't realize that he was giving.

    But maybe I've found my future career - prehaps I'd make a better profiler than even I realized....

 

 [title quote = Alexander Bain]